My Review #2: The Cowan/iaudio D2

OOhh I'm really tempted now. I'll still keep my X5 but with the battery only giving like 3hrs of play I'm not sure how much use it will be.

One question about movies, do you have to resize movies down to 320x240 or does it do this automatically?

I tried playing some movies on my brothers 5G ipod and it is surprisingly good, maybe a little too disorientating for the entire length of a movie but good enough for a 45 min episode. Since the D2 has the same resolution and more colours then I'm guessing it should be even better.
 
yeah at the moment they have a cap set at 320x240 which is a little frustrating if you have movies in a higher res, especially knowing the player is more than capable of playing them back as you still have to recode them for the time being. hopefully when the official 3.45 firmware is release that cap will have been removed:)
 
great review, have you noticed any other bugs or faults since the review?

As for the expandable memory, is it easy enough to transfer data between the card and internal flash memory? If so how fast is the transfer rate?

I was also looking at the Iaudio 7, for size and battery life, and the Iriver clix 2. Any experiences with these compared to the D2?
 
I might get one of these players when I'm in WalMart, Florida, can't resist little gadgets, can then sell my iPod for quite a bit I reckon.

Just depends how much storage I can get on it, I need at least 10GB but don't wanna spend loads on SD cards and such.

Considering it anyway.
 
I used to have an iAudio M3, and the sound quality from Cowan products is jaw droppingly good. Compared to my iPod, it wiped the floor in terms of pure sound quality. Unfortunately, the convenience of iTunes + iPod drew me away from their players, but for an audiophile I don't think it gets better in terms of portable players.
 
thanks guys. there's been quite a few firmware updates since i wrote the review. there are still bugs in the software but they all virtually all silly problems with id3 tags and the database playback. i browse my mp3's by folder structure so i dont have any of those problems.

the later firmwares have a sort of semi-parametric equaliser - it has bands than you can adjust the center frequency on, and the 'width; of the bands. there isnt an adjustable band that centers in the bottom end (~30-60hz) yet which is what most of us are wanting.

Flash support has also been added. it pretty much fully supports clix2 games ( :p ) and a few other simple flash games.
As for the expandable memory, is it easy enough to transfer data between the card and internal flash memory? If so how fast is the transfer rate?

I was also looking at the Iaudio 7, for size and battery life, and the Iriver clix 2. Any experiences with these compared to the D2?
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compared to a clix2, the d2 is a much better player. it lasts twice as long and the memory is upgradable. i've not heard aclix2 myself but apparently they arent on par in SQ either.:)

transfer of files between *** player and memory isn't bad. its not lightning fast though - you can read from the internal memory at around 4-5mb/sec if i remember. the fastest way to get music on the player is to put the card in a card reader:)
One question about movies, do you have to resize movies down to 320x240 or does it do this automatically?
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at the moment, yes. it's one of the features most requested to 'fix'
 
I've currently ordered a Clix2 because I think it looks more user friendly and nicer. I was planning on getting a Q5 or Archos 605 when they become available as a proper PMP.

I saw a video of the D2 and it looked awful to use to be honest. The sound quality is supposed to be more or less equal in both from the reviews I've read. The battery life is a negligible benefit; 20hrs of the Clix is more than enough for general purpose use, nevermind 50. Only things that are making me second guess my decision are: I already have 2 mp3 players :D, the 8gb is due out soon supposedly, and the iRiver firmwares are usually buggy as hell and their support is awful.

Like most players they both have their pros and cons. I'm going for the shallow approach on this buying decision :). If I don't like the Clix I'll sent it back and give the D2 a whirl though.
 
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I haven't used it, I was just watching you tube clips. Just looks like a lot of presses with the stylus/thumb to do simple things.
 
not really :/


start it up > "music" your in the player.tap the screen, hit "browser" > "music list" and your in the music list. scroll up/down through the list, double tap to open the folder you want and tap the mp3 you want and it starts playing.

when your playing music "settings" > "jet effects" and your in the jet effects menu.


battery life is a strange one - more is always better. it funny, peopel look at the battery life of a D2 and say "well you dont need that much anyway". as if its a reason not to buy a d2. somebody on these boards used that as a reason to defend his ipod. as if it is too much? i like the face that i can take it away for days and never charge it. before the d2 came along, peopel were complaining about battery life :confused:
 
Do you have to use the stylus? Or drag your finger down on the screen to browse music?

If so that kinda puts me off it, I tend to whip out the iPod from my pocket and scroll down on the wheel to change songs which is dead easy and no hassle. :(

Don't like the idea of getting the stylus out and such but then again maybe you get used to it, I'll have to check some videos.
 
I didn't mean it looked difficult to use really, awful was perhaps too strong, just not as easy to use as most other players. One guy that had both the clix and the d2 said that he thought that the clix was definitely the better in that department, obviously the d2 has the pros in quite a few other categories though.

I almost changed my order to a d2 once I saw how it supported flash now and will have podcast ability in future but I thought I'd stick with it and go for a cowon player later.

I don't think more battery life is a negative, I just think 50 is a lot. I like long battery life players personally, in fact the two I have right now: the Sony HD5 and Sony NW-A608 both have excellent battery life. It helps but + 18hrs is enough for me, that's all I was saying. Battery life has always been pretty crap on the iPods in my experience, usually fine for a yr or so and then it spirals into oblivion.
 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Byd_zguHLEg&mode=related&search=

Watched that and wow!

It looks far easier to use than I thought and I saw he had a 8GB SD card, think I will get one later this year if the price is right in America. :D

Edit: 190 dollars on Amazon, so thats like 90 quid, will probably be around that price in Best Buy / Walmart, add in a 6-8Gb SD card guess I'll spend about 140 quid in total, pretty decent.
 
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hi.....I am more leaning towards the D2 now rather the Clix2, wondering how you are finding it with the latest firmware. Does it have gapless playback yet & has the video coversion been fixed yet?
 
Caged said:
Nice feature list, but that "now playing" screen looks like crap.
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thats the only thing you can say about it?:o

hi.....I am more leaning towards the D2 now rather the Clix2, wondering how you are finding it with the latest firmware. Does it have gapless playback yet & has the video coversion been fixed yet?
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well, the newer firmwares improved in a number of areas. they also introduced flash support, compatible with clixII games, a paint-type program and a calculator (both useless lol). gapless im sure was there but the resolution limit on the video support was still there i think
 
james.miller said:
thats the only thing you can say about it?:o
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It's important to me, I watched the video review and it just seemed like an awful thing to have to use every day, and the now playing screen manages to sum it all up in one picture. It's designed by engineers / programmers, not designers.
 
As my Cowon M3 player is ailing I thought about buying another one of these... However, I saw the A3 specs.... oooooooooooh. :D

Still, 16gb D2 released soonish, add the 8gb SD or the 16gb SD to that - mmmm... Nice.

Simon/~Flibster
 
Caged said:
It's important to me, I watched the video review and it just seemed like an awful thing to have to use every day, and the now playing screen manages to sum it all up in one picture. It's designed by engineers / programmers, not designers.
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your loss then. its function over form. its a piece of cake to use and tells you just about everything you need to know. if you want an ipod, buy an ipod:)
 
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